Happy Birthday
by Leath29
Summary: A short one-shot that takes place in an AU where Birthday did die as a result of his illness and how Ratio spends his deceased best friend's birthday.


Ratio walked through the streets in silence, the rain softly pattering down on his head. Usually it would bother the man but this time it didn't, not much did anymore. His mind was elsewhere these days, had been for about a year now. That's how long it had been after Freemum had died out and Nice had beaten some sense into Art. Everyone was fine, everyone except Birthday. A healing minimum could work wonders but it couldn't bring the dead back to life and the blast that returned the minimums to the holders was just a tad too late. The sound of the beeping monitor, alerting those nearby of the loss of a life, was drowned out by the explosion. It wasn't as if Ratio could have taken it seriously anyways, Hajime's blast had turned him into a man without a care in the world. It was only after he regained his minimum did he regain his senses and see the gravity of the situation.

Ratio walked past Cafe Nowhere and later passed by Birthday's old apartment, they were on the way to his and although he could have avoided them, he decided he didn't want to. Not today. The man sighed and thought to himself, _This sadness, it's all just a side effect, isn't it?_ He understood that the side effects to anything were always the worst. He understood side effects to drugs, to addiction, to life and how horrible they could be. But even now, a little over a year later, he was only beginning to understand the side effects of death. Ratio had seen death his entire life, he saw when people were going to die. He supposed that after you see something so much you would grow numb to it and he often did. Death was a fact, no one lived forever and although he'd be lying if he said he never felt a twinge of sadness when he lost a patient or saw a family lose a child, he had never before felt a sadness so strongly in his life as when he lost Birthday.

He entered his apartment complex and went into the elevator, pressing a button he gave a slight nod to the unknown woman who stood next to him. From her selection it appeared she lived two floors below him. He felt no need to speak to her, it would have felt more like an unnecessary chore if he had. Ratio was distant and quiet, always had been. Although as a child it might not have been through choice, he was comfortable with being quiet, stoic, the one who appeared to always reason with logic. Yet Birthday always found a way to slightly crumble that wall he surrounded himself in. Brick by brick Birthday tore down the wall that kept him quiet. In certain moments Birthday, with his smirk and jokes, found a way to completely obliterate that wall and make Ratio reveal his true self. The part of Ratio that was gentle, worried, and caring that parr he kept hidden could be brought to light with a small smile by the right person. He didn't know why Birthday had the uncanny ability of making him feel so much but even in his death he accomplished the same thing. His death caused Ratio to feel when all he wanted was to be able to feel numb.

Ratio exited the elevator on his floor before he entered the key into his apartment and turned, swinging the door open. He slipped his coat of onto the hook and slowly removed his shoes. He glanced around the spotless apartment, he kept it clean. After all, cleaning gave him something to do. Ratio still went to work and stopped in at Cafe Nowhere but it all seemed to be just going through the motions, making it through the day. He didn't take any jobs anymore, he lost his partner and it just wouldn't have felt right without him. If anyone from Hamatora ever needed him for a job, for help, or if they somehow needed to save the world once more he'd be there in a moment's notice, ready to fight. But he didn't need to do jobs to live, being a doctor provided him with a living wage and he still spent a large portion of his time at the Cafe, so it wasn't as if his other friends were missing him. So Ratio spent his newfound free time cleaning, he had always been a slight germaphobe, Birthday made sure to tease him of that whenever he came over.

With a sigh, Ratio leaned against a window, his forearm pressing against it. "Birthday, I wonder where you are now." He murmured.

Closing his eyes, he could still see him there, holding a taser in his mouth with the ever present smile on his face. Ratio breathed out, his smirk never faltered, not when Ratio told him he was going to die when they were kids and not when he relapsed. _Relapse_. It was such a simple word, Ratio had delivered it to a handful of people himself, yet it held so much more meaning when it suddenly applied to Birthday. Doctors told Birthday he was lucky he lived through the incurable disease but now it was obvious he didn't, he simply pushed death back.

"Damn it Birthday, you promised me you'd live!" Ratio slammed a fist down on the kitchen counter next to him. "You promised." Tears ran down his face and he slid to the ground, the sound of the rain echoing in his ears. Today was an odd day for rain, it was early June and usually that meant the day was humid and hot, the sun bearing down on everyone. Despite it being odd, to Ratio, it seemed perfectly fitting. He sat staring straight ahead, his eyes focused on the ticking clock as it moved second by second. Time was all he needed, he just needed more time to save Birthday. A few seconds was all, if only Birthday had fought just a little bit longer.

Raito's eyes moved from the clock to one of the kitchen countertops. Sitting upon it was a simple pair of sunglasses, a pair Ratio had refused to move. Birthday had thrown them down on the countertop after a night of drinking before passing out on Ratio's couch. When he left the next morning he had forgotten them there and Ratio never quite found the time to move or return them. Now he was relieved this had been the case, glad he still had the simple memento of his best friend.

With a small sigh Ratio stood and after digging through the cupboards pulled out a bottle of whiskey, Birthday's drink of choice. Granted, Ratio had noticed that Birthday would drink whatever got him drunk the quickest during certain occasions, but he seemed to lean towards whisky when drinking casually. Ratio himself wasn't much of a drinker, he'd done it occasionally for a large celebration but other than that he stuck to water. Birthday, on the other hand, liked to let loose once in awhile and often that meant having a drink or five. Ratio poured himself a shot and sat down next to the sunglasses. Before drinking it he looked at the calendar: June 13th.

He poured the liquid down his throat and ignoring the burning feeling looked at the pair of sunglasses once more.

He smiled sadly, "Happy Birthday, Birthday."


End file.
